The Time has come to say goodbye to Blu-ray…

[Blu Ray McHone]

I will continue buying Blu-Rays as well. If you buy online and look for deals, you can find them cheap, as everyone has pointed out. Right now, the stores are still too expensive. You'll see the prices will come down.

[Teabaggins]

Grant, as much as some of the BD addicts here might lead to you to believe ....blu rays are "luxuries", not necessities.

I've heard people make the same claim about buying pay per view specials through cable.."it's too expensive"...when in fact the truth of the matter is that it's "too expensive FOR YOU".

if it's truly such a strain on your budget then I suggest you get a different hobby, re-prioritize your budget, or simply put building the collection up "on hold" until BD prices level out when/if the tech becomes the norm in most households.

Get a netflix account in the meantime....that's what I do

People are losing their homes and jobs out there so whining about BD prices seems a bit trivial

[DanFan]

Well, I have 114 Blu-Ray/HD-DVDs.

Buying from Amazon (2 for 1 sales, buy 2 get 1 free, etc.), buy.com 14.95 sales plus google checkout $10 savings, DeepDiscount's bi-annual 20% off sale, family video's low prices, dvdplanet, fry's, Warner Home Video (30% off codes and free shipping on orders over $50), etc., my average disc cost is $14.16.

Don't forget to take advantage of any and all rebates. I've saved $10 each on The Rock, Con Air, Kill Bill 1 & 2, The Sixth Sense, Signs and Unbreakable.

The only two titles that I've paid over $30 for are T2 french import and the Australian Casino Royale (more violence - yay!).

There are deals to be had, you just have to know where to look. I NEVER buy at B&M stores. So I have to wait a little longer for my movies, big deal. I'd rather save money.

I never pay for shipping and rarely pay any sales tax for online orders.

I even create spreadsheets to keep track of best prices when there are a lot of titles I want coming out in a short period of time. October being a prime example (Bond, Jones, Hulk, etc.)

Hell, Amazon has all six James Bond movies (via the six pack) for $18.66 each.

Perhaps you just need to do a better job of finding the deals out there.

Peace.

[Blaumann]

IMO the answer to "high prices" is indeed voting with your wallet: Only buy during sales, which for many means buying online.

Not buying will indeed hurt the format more than sending a sign to the studios to lower their prices. Buying during sales otoh will show up in the statistics as
a, one BD sold
b, one BD bought for a lower price (if that info somehow makes its way from the retailer to the studio. For movies sold by Amazon or other big online retailers, i guess the studios are well aware that they aren't selling close to MSRP)

So you can show there is demand, which is very important during this growing stage. Also you can show, that there are certain limits as to what you'd agree to pay for the product you want.

just my 2ct, eh

[SS316SRV]

Originally Posted by DanFan

The only two titles that I've paid over $30 for are T2 french import and the Australian Casino Royale (more violence - yay!).

I would need to see some extra violence if I spent that much time and money on HD DVDs

[Mr. Cinema]

BD offers much more than DVD can, so they should cost more. It's also more costly to manufacture. When the initial pricing was announced, I was relieved. I thought they would be higher. Maybe $49.99 list prices.

You are seeing more and more sales on titles now, especially on Amazon. I also think we'll start seeing price drops next year. The studios aren't about to do a massive price drop on software with Christmas around the corner. They'll wait until a boatload of PS3s and standalones sell this holiday season before they think of lowering prices.

The message you're sending to studios is "don't bother releasing any more BDs, I'm content with DVD." That's a bad message.

The more DVDs you buy now, the more you're going to replace later with the BD version.

After seeing enough BDs, I can't imagine anyone wanting to go back to standard definition.

[Joe Cain]

Originally Posted by Grant Matrix

I have been valiantly struggling to build my BD library and over the span of one year have just hit number 64.

Building a BD library=valiant struggle?

If worries about adoption rates are ruining your viewing experience, maybe you need to watch better movies. After 13 months I own only 42 titles; I don't let that bother me.

Compare the cost of early DVDs to today's BD prices to the cost of going to the cinema in each era, and tell me you're not getting good value.

[Betamax]

The only problem with a boycott is that at this point in time it would never get off the ground. BD is growing bigger every week if not every day..BUT, we are still considered early adopters. Studios know from past history that its the early adopters that usually wont not buy a movie because of pricing. Think about it... you have a state of the art home theater, your the envy of all your friends cause you have this thing called "Blue Ray" and you love to show it off. Are you not going to buy a movie because of a $5 price difference? Until the correct spelling of "Blu Ray" becomes common, prices are not really going to come down. Best Buy is selling BDs by the truckloads and they sell at almost retail! If you remember VHS movies when the format first came out movies sold for over $100. If history is any indication, the more mainstream it becomes the cheaper it becomes. Dont boycott.. BUY MORE!!

[wormraper]

I agree that many new titles are pretty high. But look at the 12.99 titles at costco. Look at the budget line of titles Warner put out etc.. they ARE coming down. People are just impatient. Also look for better deals man. seriously, if you are that impatient that you MUST own all the movies you want on release week than we got more issues baby. I've got 288 blus and 99 HD DVD's and I averaged about $15 for them all (averaged of course, many were less). Look for sales. Hell Columbia House just had a bogo on EVERY single blu ray title they had including pre orders like Iron man (which I got for $16.38 shipped). Seriously, do vote with your wallet, buy when you can find a good deal. Pricematch when you can to BB or CC etc... (target.com is a godsend ). Amazon has sales pretty regularly. Although many of us complain that they are the same old discs you got to realize that we got only so many "old" titles for them to pull those sales on, wait a few months and those "old" titles suddenly have what used to be "new" titles 5 months before. Patience and an eye for deals is all you really need. Hell, half.com and this forum alone and I can get new releases (unless it's hyper popular like transformers) for $15 or under.

[kefrank]

A boycott would achieve the opposite effect that you're going for. The way that Blu-ray prices will come down is for them to become more mass market, which means more people need to be buying, not less. If less people are buying Blu-ray discs, Blu-ray will remain niche and prices will remain high. It's simple economics. If the volume is low, the margin per unit has to be high, so the price is higher. If the volume is high, the margin per unit can be lower and you'll see more sale pricing at retailers.

DVD's get discounted on release week by the retailers, not the studios. They discount them as loss leaders, because DVD is so ubiquitous, they know it will get people into the store. Blu-ray needs to become ubiquitous if you want loss leader pricing at retailers on release week, so I would strongly recommend you keep buying (within your means, of course).

[PowellPressburger]

Originally Posted by Joe Cain

Building a BD library=valiant struggle?

If worries about adoption rates are ruining your viewing experience, maybe you need to watch better movies. After 13 months I own only 42 titles; I don't let that bother me.

Compare the cost of early DVDs to today's BD prices to the cost of going to the cinema in each era, and tell me you're not getting good value.

Very good point, I don't buy every single Blu Ray released. I like to think I have some taste but times and buys may prove otherwise, yesterday I was at best Buy to purchase Texas Chainsaw Massacre I love the original, it really shows America at a different time, the world was changing and the fear was translated well in what was coming. - at any rate the sales guy said , you aren't buying Iron Man, I said No I thought it was a really good movie but not something I would watch over and over, I said the same about Dark Knight I've seen it twice at the IMAX and it was good (1 million times better than Begins), but I said I felt like i had seen it too many times and I didn't want to get bored with the film seeing it over and over. It would lose it's power so to speak.

I own really good blu rays don't worry, esp classic films which are my favorites. But i dont buy everything that gets released.

[Beefbowl]

10 months = 175 BDS I do have some lemons though...lol

Once I started watching blu-ray movies, I couldn't stand watching SD DVDs anymore (even at upconverted). I'll never go back to buying SD DVD's.

[CAB]

So reduction in the volume will drive prices down? I often wonder how people come to the conclusion that businesses are charitable organizations that exist to provide us jobs and give their products away at a loss. I know! We can have the government tell Blu-ray how they should make their products and who they should sell them to and how much they charge! We're seeing how well that works for the US car industry and the home finance markets.

[PowellPressburger]

Originally Posted by kefrank

DVD's get discounted on release week by the retailers, not the studios. They discount them as loss leaders, because DVD is so ubiquitous, they know it will get people into the store. Blu-ray needs to become ubiquitous if you want loss leader pricing at retailers on release week, so I would strongly recommend you keep buying (within your means, of course).

This is actually WRONG! I have a friend who works at Best Buy corporate and one thing I learned was that the STUDIOS pay and choose the prices listed in the advertisements!

So when you see CC or BB having different pricing and or listed item in one ad but not the other this was not the retailers doing it was the STUDIO choosing in how they wanted to pay to sale the release. So when you don't see certain blu rays advertised etc, it is because the studio chose not to go thru the trouble.

When they do the sunday ads most legal depts from studios have to sign off and this means when they place images from a film on their TV screens in the ad sometimes even the star has to sign off! This was the case with Disney Johnny Depp and the pirates films!

So the studios do set those ad. sale prices.

(Retailers can sale them for any price they wish at any time obviously, but the advertisements prices are ok'd and price points directed by the studio.

[stockstar1138]

I agree quite a bit with the OP.

It is tougher to find blu-rays cheap now than it was 12 months ago, especially with newer titles.

I don't like paying over $20 for a blu unless it is of exceptional quality (Pixar, Close Encounters, Blade Runner) and on some of these new titles (and even catalogs) they can't be found hardly anywhere for under $25.

I'm certainly willing to pay a premium for blu-ray and don't expect to pay DVD prices. I truly hate DVD and have never found myself saying that DVD is good enough. Im not going to shell out $15, watch a movie thinking to myself the whole time that it looks bad. Im actually more willing to spend a ridiculous price on blu and be a stasfied customer. But Im even more willing to simply wait for the movie and pick it up cheap a year after its come out and thats what ive been doing and rent it if i really got to watch it now.

I got plenty of great movies on blu to watch, Ive got plenty of PS3 games to play if I want, unless I find acceptable prices on blu, which has become hard lately, i simply won't buy it. it saves me money, it sends a message to studios and retailers that were not going to pay out of our butt for a blu-ray.

thats my thoughts. ive only bought 1 blu-ray in the past 8 weeks (The Nightmare Before Xmas), it is of acceptional quality and well worth quite a large premium (found it for $24.95)

[bg_nyc]

Is there not an entire section of the forum dedicated to dealz?

Stop buying blu's, and the prices will go up. More volume means more units to spread around their fixed costs. Thats why mass adoption will lead to lower prices.

[Monkeyspoons Revenge]

Dont be so silly people. What percentage of the Blu Ray buying public do you think will read this thread. Less than 1%. Studios will not notice any drop in sales caused by this thread. Boycotting buying blu rays will only affect you and make you the losers.

[BaronVH]

I paid $67 for the Godfather movies on Blu-ray. I paid well over $100 for them on DVD when they first came out on sale. The prices will come down, but they are not bad. I can remember VHS tapes being over $100 for a single movie when they were first released.

I do think that stores should do first week discounts more. The real problem with the format is the price of stand alone players. That is what needs to change (and 1.1 players need to drop considerably). Of course, DVD players were expensive at this stage in the game, but there needs to be deeper adoption, in my opinion.

[obiwopkenobi62]

Back in the days of Beta and VHS(early days) movies were super expensive. I remember paying 50 to 100 bucks for one movie. Nowadays Blu is cheap in comparison. It's really not any more expensive than when DVD hit the market. Not really high priced considering it's still relatively new tech. I won't stop buying Blu but I will not go back to DVD. If you want sub par quality stick with DVD. I want the best quality and that is Blu......

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by Monkeyspoons Revenge

Dont be so silly people. What percentage of the Blu Ray buying public do you think will read this thread. Less than 1%. Studios will not notice any drop in sales caused by this thread. Boycotting buying blu rays will only affect you and make you the losers.

im not really boycotting as much as i want a fair value. if i feel like its worth it, i will gladly pay for it.

i know there are many blu fans who never go on internet forums and whatnot, but i know i can't be the only person who feels this way about the current situation in pricing.

on top of that, i know there are insiders who read these boards and if there is enough grumbling they will talk about it with the head blu honchos. we are probably some of the most hardcore blu fans out there and if were not happy, there is a good chance many, many other customers aren't.